IN Carmel

 Church Day.  A day to look forward to worship through music.  And without fail, it was another fabulous experience.  I always look so forward to Heather and the organ.  You know I've listened to that organ for more than 55 years almost every Sunday, being blessed every time by the writers of music and those who breathe life into the organ finding the notes conveying their meaning to my heart.  Without fail, those who have commanded the organ and now Heather has always offered a blessing. Sometimes I wonder if there is some physical change in my body for the better when first hearing the notes as they reach deep inside filling the soul. I hope others have had the same experience.  It's one that erases everything but the message sweeping away the cares being carried.  So once again I was blessed with a time of peace and escape.   A last year picture of the Michigan grandsons.  Jacob (on the right) is graduating from highsch...

 Oh, What a beautiful morning.  Oh, What a beautiful day.  I've got a wonderful feeling.  Everything's going my way. You get the whole verse today.  Maybe not everything is going... but I'm not complaining.  A little short on sleep but not complaining.  Now my sister...that's another story.  She still is a late sleeper and I still never am.  We were poor bedroom mates.                               Ornamental Strawberries filling in spaces in the walk outside the back door.   The morning started with the sun and hoe in hand.  I tackled another flowerbed.  I think they all have been touched now.  That says a lot.  And the beat will continue all summer.  I planted two new garden plants.  Took out hundreds of baby violets just germinating. Grrrr.  Hate them.  Fluffed a whole lot of dirt softened by yesterday...

 This morning was a little crazy. or a little too busy.  I worked on Wordle and eventually, that was a washout.  Crossword was done, and Eric was taken to the bus.  It was a rainy morning a bit unsettling to ride a bike to work downtown.  I picked up medicine at the drugstore.  Then it was a Kroger stop-buying oil and an orange for a rhubarb pie.  Then back home and discovered that I got the wrong medicine so I went back to the drugstore to fix that and then home more than an hour from when I started.  Woo.  I survived!  I saw a whole lot of Rangelne Rd. over and over. This is my token Buckeye tree.  It's about 4 years old and about 3 ft tall at the most.  Last year the deer found it and stripped it clean of anything green.  Today I sprayed it with deer off with the hope that it can make a little progress in growth.  I need to fertilize it.   Another rhubarb pie is now on the counter with half going to neigh...

 Oh, what a beautiful morning, Oh, what a beautiful day.  And it was.  After a pretty accepting night of sleep, a cup of coffee, a bowl of oatmeal with nuts and raisins, a successful crossword and wordle.  In fact I was the first of the foursome to complete Wordle.  I tied Kat.  That's saying I didn't come in first with the fewest tries.  Then it was outside to the great outdoors.  My kind of morning which turned into my kind of day.   This was a morning project.  These four posts are cut-off, short versions of the fence around Fort Wilkins State Park.  We've vacationed at that fort for many years and last summer I asked the maintenance workers if I could have some over-the-hill posts.  Doug suggested the shorter ones and I thought short was better than none.  Now they are in the garden which will be surrounded by a multitude of Becky Daisys filling in with a beautiful background.  I love having something new tha...

 Dear, dear friends.  I am honored to be in your circle of care.  My posting numbers are usually around 10 and this morning the posting numbers are 30.  You are checking in as Mark invited you to do. Life has been a bit crazy again but this time I feel there is an easier road to health.  Optimist that I am. There will be another "trial" but with prayer and a great team of doctors yet to be discovered I'm sure I'll be in good hands.  I imagine this event will include radiation treatments again.  Been there, done that as well!!!  I'll just keep on doing what need to be done.  There are times when I feel a bit overwhelmed.  The garden hoe comes out or a trip to a plant heaven and I'm in another world.  How interesting that in both cancer cases these episodes happen at the beginning of the growing season.  It's the distraction that I need and feel God-given.  Right now I have the cleanest weed-free outside that I've ever ...

 Pray without ceasing.  That seems to be the theme of the year or maybe since Dec. of 2020 or in some respects all my life. .  And I certainly have a prayer warrior with Brother Emilio..  I'll add Sister Karen, and then there is Father Cassion to boot and a whole bunch of brothers.  The Religious Catholic community that is in my big basket of friends far and wide know how to pull me through.  One more try.  Well I hope it's one but what ever it is I'll be pulled through.   This morning I made an attempt at figuring out the sparrows and bluebirds and their relationship to neighbor Judy's mealworm feeder.   I like this mealworm feeder because it has clear sides and roof making it easy to see the birds..  I don't like this feeder because the sparrows fly right through the 4 squares in the ends.  They didn't find the holes on the sides.  The bluebirds ignored it.  I would think with time they would figure it out....

 The only thing I can say about describing last night is that I don't understand why that happened.  I watched TV as usual and then went to bed at the regular time.  But sleep just didn't come by.  After a few hours, I got up and took a sleeping pill.  That didn't work.  There was more that I'll spare you all trying a few other fixes and finally at five I fell asleep sleeping till seven.  It seems I was waiting for the sandman all night. I think he lost my address.                                         A c lose-up of a Celandine poppy.  Doesn't look like a poppy at all.   So guess what happened today.  I did a whole lot of chair sleeping.  It would appear that my day and night were turned around. I'm NOT a baby.  So what do I have to show for the day?  Not much except sleep.  The day continues...

 A great sleep Sunday night.  Love it.  Eric got his ride to Nora.  He would have been frozen on the bike if he had chosen to ride.  It was a Brr morning with frost on the hill.  That was our pumpkin.  I covered some things but all came through another cold snap.  Tonight should be better.   I met with Dr. Jolli, my primary doctor this morning just to get some direction on some what-ifs that might be coming.  Stepping into the medical world again is not an easy thing but if I need to I want to be ready.  One thing I learned was that referrals from a primary doctor are not necessary.  That is helpful. I always have trouble knowing where to start or where the door is.  The rest of the day from time to time was spent outside.  That should not be a huge surprise although it was a bit brisk when the sun hid behind a cloud.  I did a lot of talking to the clouds.  I edged and scraped weeds and did a lot of flu...

 Another easy morning that happens when one is not a choir member needing to be there at an early hour.  So it was a slow trip south to church after 10.  And then entering the church at a slow unhurried pace.  Love it.  Today the choir sang an old favorite.  I sang it inside my head.   The most recent recycling project at church is all about old tennis shoes.  The church gets a quarter for each pr. and more if they are like new shoes. Those shoes go right back needy community folks. This bin was filled today and there is already a bin somewhere else as well.  People are doing neighborhood purges.  The money will go to relandscaping. which has been neglected for years.  Some B Pears will be coming down!  Yeah.  The shoes are ground up and the new material is used for something.  Maybe more shoes.   On the morning walk this morning I found one little trillium.  One is better than none and is more tha...

 The morning arrived looking its best.  Clear spicy air after a day of rain with the sun showing off every plant's best side. A walk in the garden would have offered that realization if one needed assurance.  It was a morning song heard with all the birds simply happy in their entertainment.  I wanted to employ the garden rake in a few places but declined for the day.  An environment allowing more healing needed to be my priority.  Love that Tylenol. Even though the morning scene looked like a snowstorm was in progress and the wind had a bitting feeling the "snow" came from a neighbor's apple tree being blown free of blossoms.  It happens every year.     I solved Wordle on the second try.  Congratulations to me for sure. The crossword puzzle was done in short order.  By 9:20 I would have said the day was a huge success.  I mozied over to the rhubarb patch and pulled what I hope would be enough rhubarb for a pie.  The ...

 This post will be short because not much happened.  Well, a lot may have happened.  I just don't know what it is. The morning had a trip with Eric to the bus stop at Nora.  That happened in the middle of a big rainstorm.  And the rain continued all morning.  There is nothing like rain to slow everything in my life right down to a crawl.  And the morning did crawl.  There was TV and a few walks in the garden between rain drops.  I found this little blue in the garden means that there are baby robins somewhere                               I ate an early lunch and was off to the I U Medical Center again for a breast needle biopsy at 1 p.m.  Woo..that needle was really cow size long. Since I was numbed up I didn't care a bit.  I was just impressed.  I'm beginning to feel right at home with the ladies at that breast center.  Certainly no...

 The every-other-day routine makes this a very busy day.  The opposite of slow yesterday.  So Wordle was awesome.  Got it in TWO.  There are not very many twos.  I'll take it.   I did a check garden walk around finding a few red beets peeking through. There was a little TV news and then watched the clock to get me on the road by 9:30 for my 10:30 appointment at the med center.  This appointment was with Dr. Langar who was my guardian angel doctor during radiation treatments. Along with two other little sprouts, I found this tonight in the garden.  It's the first of more to come common milkweed necessary for Monarch living..  I had a large patch of common milkweed a few years ago.  I did an early spring Round-up spray not thinking of the milkweed below.  The Round-up leeched down to the root system..  The garden suffered for about 4 years before any common milkweed appeared again.  They are back.  Yahoo!. The...

 Mid-week in my book.  Half has gone and a half to come.  I'll need to say first off that today was not yesterday.  A little slower and no deadlines to meet.  Crossword done.  Wordle to do yet.   I needed to stop at Walgreens this morning so that got me on the road.  A little glitch with the medicine not being ready when I was told it would be.  So I mozied on up to Ace to look at their plants.  Then back to Walgreens and then on to Rosie's to look at more plants.  I found a holdover pot from last year.  A Cornflower just appearing.  My kind of plant.  Most of the Corn Flowers are products of this year's greenhouse and are in full bloom.  Not my kind of plant.  An unforced flower will bloom later in the summer when it naturally would.  And it was planted this afternoon.  I could say the perennial bed is full.  Well, maybe.                 ...

 One thing I can say about today is the hope that I don't have another one like today or tomorrow.  It wasn't a bad one, just busier than a hive of bees going here and there.  But at this point just a little busy is what I need.   Today started with a slow get-up, a little news, a great bowl of oatmeal, and then on to get Eric to the bus.  Then it was home for a few minutes and then getting the grandsons to school.  Kat had to go to work early. I love seeing the family like that.  On the way home I stopped at Lowes to check on their large indoor plants.  I think we'll be shopping in Carmel on Thursday for our church purchases.  I bought 12 great-looking dianthus plants while there.  A great find and in super good condition.  I needed a few places filled and these plants can take cooler temperatures.  In fact, we had frost last night and the ones I have from previous years are just fine. By then it was 8:30.  I finishe...

 The beginning unless you count Sunday of a new work week.  I try not to work on Sunday.  I call it play if I do.  This week happens with a number of doctor visits. They seem to come along faster and faster.  So it's checking in time again.  The surgery and cancer radiation doctors just don't want to let me go.  And the breast doctor has a firm hold on me. There are more!!!   Friday I'll be having a breast biopsy.  It could be the start of something new as yet to be determined. Changes have occurred.  I needed to fill my mind with something other than me so I  decided it was a church work day.  There were more things to change such as musical banners to put away used at Sunday's services.  I find working alone in the quiet and dimly lit sanctuary a calming atmosphere. I dressed up the altar and pulpit area with what I consider one of Doris' finest accomplishments.  We often use these two pieces on Easter Sunday b...